For 30 years Kathryn P. Kelleher Schorer was a clothing designer at the eponymous Kate Schorer Company of Colorado Springs, CO. She was born in Iowa in 1916 and in 1938 she was married in St. Joseph, MO to William Henry Schorer (1915 to 1983), who was born in Kansas.
William H. Schorer’s WWII Army enlistment record notes his civil occupation was civil engineer, but at the time of his death in 1983 his obituary noted he was the owner of the Kate Schorer Company. A 1977 article about the company stated they manufactured “ladies’ blouses and square dance dresses for wholesale distribution throughout the United States.”
Most of the earliest newspaper references to the company dated to 1977, at which time it was announced a new building was under construction for the company in Colorado Springs, CO. It was also noted the company had been in business for 15 years (thus since 1962) and prior to the move to the new Pecan Street building they were at 1680 S. 21st Street in Colorado Springs.
The business appears to have prospered after 1977 and in December 1979 they were incorporated in the state of Colorado. Classified ads asking for experienced seamstresses to sew square dance dresses appeared into the 1990’s and beyond. When William Henry Schorer died in 1983 his son Michael Schorer assumed ownership of the company. In a 1989 article about square dancing, Mike Schorer observed that square dancing was gaining in popularity in Colorado Springs, “especially among couples in their 40s, 50s, and 60s…” and the article noted there was an informal dress code for the participants, all of which, it seems, helped the Kate Schorer Company thrive – until the death of designer Kathryn Schorer in 1996.
Incorporation records for the Kate Schorer Company record the October 1, 1998 dissolution of the company, just two years after Kathryn Schorer’s death.
Written by LKRanieri
from a late 1970s square dance dress
Courtesy of pinky-a-gogo
from a late 1970s square dance dress
Courtesy of pinky-a-gogo